Total No of Rhinos slaughtered in South Africa to Dec 31st 2017 = 1028. Official figures. Read my blog below for Headlines from around the World concerning the Global Catastrophe that is causing the biggest mass extinction since the Permian Period, and News of the fight to stop the slaughter of the Planet's Wildlife before it is too late.

Nature Explored

Wednesday, 2 August 2017

Irregularities in the death of Cecil's son Xanda

Original Article by Conservation Action Trust.

The death of Cecil’s son, Xanda at the hands of trophy hunters on 7
July is mired in confusion. He was shot just outside Zimbabwe’s Hwange
National Park, near the spot his father had been killed by American bow
hunting dentist, Walter Palmer.

It was claimed that Xanda was shot legally as part of an approved
quota – seven lions are allowed to be hunted per year in the area
outside the park. Yet, like the death of his father, questions have been
raised surrounding the circumstances of Xanda’s death. The lion just
six years old was considered fair game however, he had a GPS collar and
was the head of a pride with several cubs that resided within the
protection of the national park that prohibits hunting.

A statement released by the Zimbabwe Professional Hunters and Guides
Association stated that Xanda had been ousted from his pride and had
moved permanently out of the park. However, this is contradicted by
researchers from the University of Oxford who had been tracking Xanda,
and say that the six-year old lion was the head of his own pride
consisting of three lionesses and had seven young cubs between 12 and 18
months old.

It also seems clear that Xanda’s killing contravenes the Zimbabwe
Parks and Wildlife Management Authority policy, which states that male
lions of any age known to be heading prides or known to be part of a
coalition heading prides with dependent cubs of 18 months old or less,
should not be hunted. Neither should any lion fitted with a collar.

As a result, the Humane Society International
(HSI), has sent a letter to Oppah Muchinguri, Zimbabwe’s Minister of
Environment, Water and Climate of Zimbabwe, calling on her government to
investigate these irregularities.

Audrey Delsink, Executive Director of Humane Society
International/Africa, said: “With so many irregularities shrouding the
killing of Xanda, we urge the Government of Zimbabwe to hold the people
involved in his death accountable if they are found to have acted in an
illegal manner.”
The death of Xanda also means that his seven offspring face an
unlikely future. “Sadly, Xanda’s death means his cubs are vulnerable to
infanticide leading to further unnecessary loss of animals already
threatened with extinction,” says Delsink.

Currently, there are fewer than 30,000 lions left in Africa whose
range has been reduced to 8 percent of their former range primarily as a
result from loss of habitat, poaching and poorly regulated trophy
hunting. A report conducted
by Economists at Large found that trophy hunting is not economically
significant in African countries, with the total economic contribution
of trophy hunters at most estimated at 0.03 percent of gross domestic
product in the countries studied.

Delsink says this latest incident in Zimbabwe “just highlights
further the destructive nature of the trophy hunting industry. At
minimum, Zimbabwe must conduct a full investigation and not allow
Xanda’s remains to leave the country as a trophy.”

The HSI letter has also requested that Zimbabwe officials bring legal
action against the trophy hunters if warranted, prevent the export of
the trophy and establish a five-kilometer no-hunting zone around Hwange
National Park.

Trophy hunting is just so illogically stupid, It's like killing the goose that lays the golden egg.And what right does a trophy hunter have to deprive me of my right to see that same lion?